Rick Altman's Theory - Semantic approaches

The semantic approach to to film is the idea of generic conventions. The audience expect when they watch a product such as a film or television show certain conventions have to be placed into it, for example we expect to see in the genre stock characters such as the vulnerable blonde woman, and a large either masculine murderer or ominous and enigmatic spirits at work; the sound effects are set to be very sharp pitched sounds that are loud and build up the tension just as much as the actual footage, we expect to see if the antagonist in the product is human a melee type weapon such as a knife, and in terms of location and shooting styles we expect many close up shots to create a trapped atmosphere and they tend to be set in abandoned environments. Without these conventions the audience would not consider the film to be the genre it claims to be and therefore be confused by what they were actually viewing.